Echo's don't off-road well

So I'm comming home from Cannington today and I decided to take the 603 Grid to Manor rather than drive through the Rez because there's more pavement out that way (2km more). It has been Raining since 3 in the morning and I thought it was a better idea. so about 6 KM down the road there's a huge patch of quicksand basically. I coulnd't see it until about 3 seconds before I hit it. Down sinks the Echo at 80 KM/hour. Still moving though because rule #1 of driving in muck...NEVER TOUCH THE BRAKE. The ass end of the car starts to slip and veers right while the front end starts to slip left. I still have my foot on the gas because you have to keep the tires moving or else again, sink. I gave the wheel a light crank to the right and started to pull out of my jack-knife. I was bracing for the impact with the ditch (and probably a roll) when it pulled out and back on the road. Mud was flying up all over the cab, and I still had a fair stretch to go before I was out of trouble. I was able to keep the front wheels relativiely straight for the remainder of the mud patch but the ass end still slid around and I wabbled around back and fourth in the cab until I finally hit some solid ground. Needless to say I almost lost the car and it's covered in mud, but I arrived in one peice.

Tomorrow I'm going to jump it over a gorge.
J.B.

Big Dreams Big Failiure

I'm starting to feel the theme of Cannington Manor in my own life now. The main theme being big dreams and big failiure. I won't be able to make canoe trip this year so that disappoints me, but I think the biggest disappointment is my hot tub already has a leak in it. I guess I got what I paid for eh? So needless to say I'm pretty pissed off, because I have $1350 paperweight in my back yard unless I can figure out how to fix it. The leak is fairly slow but I'm not sure how to go about finding it unless I pull the liner off and I'm not sure I can do that if there's water in the tub. Anywhoo, I better get back at it

Later
J

Tales from Cannington Manor

Monday-cleaned Cannington, all of it. Every building that's out there, (except the blacksmith shop). The Maltby House at the end of Cannington is possibly haunted, apparently one of the workers last year felt a hand on their neck while playing the piano and a few others felt something "strange" when they were there I myself feel as though I'm being watched in that house.

Tuesday- taking inventory and setup. I basically worked in the carpentry shop all day, and was about the best place to be temperature and shelter-wise. So far it's my favourite place to be in the whole village. I also found out that we can use the shop to make stuff. We're allowed to start and run our own projects (blacksmithing excluded). I was soooooo pissed off when I was told I couldn't blacksmith! Of all the shit that I wanted to learn was how to do that kind of work, but I guess you can't leave a fire burning unattended.

Wednesday-Watched movies all morning about Canningtion, Remittance Men, Motherwell, and Pioneer Quest. Then went out to Cannington to get a thourough history lesson from my boss. I also tried on some costumes.

Shit I've learned this week:
-Just like our idea to start a planned community the people at Cannington had the same idea to build a utopian society.
-They call it "Moose Mountain" for a reason I have seen 2 Moose already on my way to work.
-I have to drive about half an hour from Carlyle to get to Cannington on gravel dusty roads but the traffic isn't bad. I had a bloody scary moment today when I drove past a semi on the grid road and I went completely blind from the dust! I could'nt see out the windshield for a few seconds, but it was enough to get the heart pounding. Rhonda's car wasnt' exactly built to handle gravel. It's way too light and it fishtails around 110kph. I imagine it's better than my car what with no struts and all.

Other shit:
My parents have been out here all week and it's been nice we've gone over for supper and stuff a few times. Tai has cavities in all her teeth and needs to have them fixed soon. Rhonda is coaching soccer and is already frustrated with all the "soccer moms and dads" Jesus Christ the kids are 5 -6 years old just let them have fun and chase the bloody ball.
I've tried to get ahold of Dan Duthie but I think his phone number has changed. I think I might have saw him riding a bike this morning on my way to work. It was a guy with red hair, and a bandanna, it kinda fits the description.

Anyways that's all from the Moose Mountains.
peace J.B.

Chillin in Carlyle

It's been a great few days out here. Fairly relaxing. I spent yesterday playing pirates and eventually finishing the game I started a few days ago. I've been catching up on all the Dead Like Me episodes I havn't seen yet. I've also had time to chill in the hot tub in the back yard. It's pretty crazy here compared to Regina or Weyburn even. You don't hear much at night here. The odd car passing on the highway, but mostly the crickets, which chirp in odd rhythms and patters. You can hear the Mallards in the ditance, Bats flitting around, the odd dog barking. I havn't actually lived in a town this small before, so it's a bit of a surprize. The moon is bright behind the trees and it's quite dark, not alot of streetlights. I also recently found out we have a picnic table.

Anyways, I will grace y'all with some pics of Carlyle town later on.

Peace

Training

Ok this is 2 posts because I barely had time to breathe let alone blog.

So May 1st 2006 started with me getting to the university at about 9:40am my boss had told me to be there by 10:00. So I waited.....and waited.....and then another girl showed up she was told the same thing by my boss. We chit-chatted, grabbed some coffee and eventually by about 11am some people started showing up. They gave us a package of info, and rooms in the North tower of the new university residences (which are very nice). We proceeded to have some long but interesting presentations with lots of pictures from all the parks and a historical overview of Sask Parks. The session wrapped up at about 2:30 and then we went outside for a walk around the bird sanctuary which was F***ING cold and windy. Of course I dont' have my winter coat it's in Carlyle town. I was ok though. I was getting through it. The ticks were out in full force. One guy tucked his pant legs into his socks, another girl had 6 of them on her, but I seemed to luck out.

The time was about 5:00pm by the time we got to the Wascana Tourist center for supper and a celebration (it's Sask Environment's 75th b-day this year) and yes we sang happy birthday to sask environment parks and recreation....happy birthday to you. We had beef on a bun and coleslaw, and chocolate and white cakes, which were delish. Then we had to go sit around a camp fire, down by the lake.. Oh yes did I mention it was cold, rainy and a lake is possibly the windiest place in the world to be? I had a short sleved shirt, long sleeved shirt and my fleece, but I also grabbed a few pop bottles and filled them with HOT water. They were my saving grace for the first hour while we watched 2 presentations but I was bloody well freezing by the end, and I had to pee REALLY bad. The day finally ended at 9 PM after having sat outside in the bitter cold for 2 hours.

Damn I will have to finish thes later, time to eat